Elance Solution - Contractor Analysis and Selection (ECAS)

If you don't want to rely on their potentially inaccurate assesments as to who is the best contractor for you, then you will have to explore options other than those that are provided by the Elance level system. Below are a list of features you will find within the ECAS Tool and their descriptions.

Report Board

For the most part, the Report Board is where you view results and not where you enter information. With the exception of criteria for percentiles, you won't give any input on this sheet. This is where you read the vital info that you need to make your selection. You can use the Report Board to view contractors in order from highest to lowest score and visa versa.

You can also view contractors based on other factors such as Level, Rating, and etc. Futher comparison is provided in the form of stat percentiles for each main factor. Indicators are displayed in each row telling you if an entry falls above, below, or is equal to the percentile you set. Percentiles can be customized by entering the values you personally prefer.

See the lower right area below the main chart. Please note that the High and Low percentiles should add up to be 100%. Example: if you set theHigh for 25%, you will set the Low as 75%.

This means that if you have 20 entries total, the 4 highest values will be indicated as "High" (25% of 20 = 5), and the remaining 16 values will be indicated as being "Low" (75% of 20 = 15).
Each of these are set to 50% by default.

Data

The Data sheet is where you enter stats and information of contractors. If you wish, you may only enter Level, Rating, and Jobs. This is enough to do a full calculation. Any other information is for your records or convenience. There are Presets below the main chart. There you can adjust values for the expected number of Jobs for a given Level.

Please know that these settings have a significant effect on the calculation of Score and you should leave them at their default settings unless you are sure your input is more accurate.

Calc

The Calc worksheet displays raw, unformatted information that is referenced by the Report Board. You can look at it if you wish to see the numbers in plain text.

Click on the link below for a closer look at the ECAS tool.